Friday, June 22, 2012

Sports and Recreation OWN3D

Have you ever noticed that most organized sports and recreation in the United States is own3d by the state or own3d by crony capitalist closely connected with the state?

Since most K-12 schools are own3d by the state, most high school sport is own3d by the state. The same is true with College Sports. Most colleges are state own3d with the industry regulated by the NCAA, Sports is governed by the NCAA which is at best a quasi private entity owned by members.

In professional sports, the teams are all associated with states or cities. In many cases the teams play in state own3d stadiums (built on the ideals of the roman coliseums). In many cases big business owns the naming rights to the local coliseum.

The ideal of state own3d in one where sedentary people gather in 70,000 seat arenas to watch an over the top competition while gradually turning into lumps themselves.

When I look at big sports, I wondered if this recreation of the Roman Coliseum model really was the free market approach to sports.

Of course it isn't.

In a free market, anyone who wanted to play could throw together a team and play.

I then asked if beating an opponent really is the goal of sports?

Of course it isn't.

The heart of the free market is the free mind. The focus of a truly free market sports would be about developing the individual.

I looked at the whole sports world with a critical eye and asked how I could improve upon to create truly free market sport.

Way back in the 1980s, I invented a new social networking sport called "juggleball."

Oddly, you don't have to know how to juggle to play juggleball. The real heart of the sport is the exchange of goods between people. Everyone starts with two numbered juggleballs. As you play the game you exchange these balls and other tokens with players.

We record each of the transactions on Juggleball.com. This will create a really fun social map.

I led into this post with a discussion of ownership. Ownership is key to this game. In this game, people will move around from place to place exchanging balls.

(Yes, this game that I invented back in the 1980s is actually a bit like FourSquare in that businesses might want to declare themselves a juggleball venue to attract customers).

I have a whole business model that is ready to go from the moment that I find a person who is willing to actually engage in life. I actually designed the game so that venues would sell tokens that would be part of the game.

Sadly, I live in Utah, which is a closed and oppressive society*. However, I will be traveling to Washington State for a wedding at the beginning of August. If anyone in Utah, Idaho, Western Montana, Washington or Oregon is interested in playing a fun game in August, please contact me.

The game is open to members of both sex. People of all age can play the game. I would like to start with people over 18. If you are under 18, have your guardian sign up.

I invite anyone on the planet to contact me.

*Yes, I live in Utah. No, I am not LDS. Juggleball is open to people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds.